The Spiritual Director of Soul Revival Outreach, Nnewi, Anambra State, Prophet Ikechukwu Uzukwu has reminded President Bola Tinubu of his promise that the nation’s refineries would commence operations in December 2023 as he as well wondered why corrupt politicians are not in jail.
Prophet Uzukwu bared his mind at the weekend after a crusade the Revival Outreach held in the industrial community.
Apart from failure of Mr President’s promise to revive the refineries, the cleric said one of the factors contributing hugely to economic strangulation and food scarcity in Nigeria was inability of the federal government to decongest the nation’s wharf to allow importers clear their goods.
He said that the stringent measures and high import duties had made large quantities of goods especially consumable items to be abandoned at the wharfs.
He said the effect was that goods were not coming into the markets which he noted had forced the prices of few commodities to rise astromically.
“There are large quantities of uncleared goods with the Nigerian Port Authorities due to high rate of clearing duties. Auctioning citizens goods is not the best for Nigerian Customs Service. There should be a reduction in clearing duties, “he said.
The Prophet also expressed dissatisfaction with the recent electricity tariff hike when people, according to him, were still grappling with hardship occasioned by the removal of oil subsidy.
He described the action as the worst thing that had happened to Nigerian masses especially business owners, adding that the hike was sure to force over 80 percent of factories in Nigeria to shut down.
“If the previous governement had borrowed the reported billions of dollars and our roads are still nothing to write home about, the worst in Africa, added to no steady supply of electricity, then the borrowers should be arrested to tell Nigerians what happened to the money.
“Many Nigerians are dying of huger, wallowing in abject poverty and many of our children are dropping out of school because of governement that borrows to loot.
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should begin without wasting further time to fish out those who looted the country’s wealth, they are not invisible. Go after them the way you go after Yahoo Boys.
“Many past Governors are guilty of looting. It’s no longer ideal for the EFCC to just sieze some of their property and the person will go and start to enjoy the massive wealth without going to prison.
“Governement catches the Yahoo Boys and the next day you will hear that they have been sentenced to many years of imprisonment. These Yahoo Boys use laptop and smart phone to steal while those in power use Authority Stealing Instrument (pen). Pen is more dangerous than gun.
“Authority Stealing is worse than armed robbery. Nigeria should do something about this nonsense.
“No penalty for authority stealing while the Yahoo Boys are always punished when caught. The same penalty should be extended to authority thieves. Without that, looting will continue to be trendy.
“Stealing with pen has been there for over 50 years and that gave birth to Yahoo Yahoo. Pen robbery is the great grand father of Yahoo.
” China, one of the most successful countries globally in business and technology regards authority stealing as the highest crime in their country which attracts death penalty. How many politicians have been in prison in Nigeria because of authority stealing, yet trillions of dollars have been stolen in this country since independence and nothing is done about it.
“When you sing ‘Arise Oh Compatriots’, these looters will be the first to rise, “the Prophet submitted.
Uzukwu called for mass protest by churches, civil society organizations, students unions, market women and every other group to rise up and campaign for stringent penalties against looters in Nigeria.
